Chapter 122: Cheep!? 120

Cheep!? 

Chapter 120

Niko awoke on soft cushions, the gentle glow from the diffuse light of dawn seeping in through high, slitted windows above. He squinted his eyes at them, wondering if they were made from glass, or if the small, subtle sigils carved into parts of the wood around somehow acted similarly. With a restful groan, he stretched his limbs out and fluffed up his feathers, the gem-stone colors almost gleaming in the low light.

“G’mornin’,” Skye grumbled as she herself roused from her slumber. 

With a low caw, Niko answered, “Morning.” 

The two left their morning greetings at that, both shaking off grogginess. Skye’s bed was luxurious, at least, as much as Niko’s was, albeit Niko wouldn’t have traded even if she’d asked. After his conversation with Mithel last night, Niko had enough trouble sleeping, and, funnily enough, Skye had experienced much of the same issue. When they noticed the mind-bridge between them was still active, rather than somewhat faint from slumber, they’d simply moved to the same room once more for company and comfort. 

Of all things, Niko never expected to see the day when he’d grow used to having other people around while sleeping, let alone that he would have trouble sleeping without it. 

“Think they have breakfast?” Skye stretched as she stood, and Niko faintly heard the crackle of joints.

He joined in, the ache in his feet much reduced from the day before, “Probably. This place is a crazy huge mansion, after all.” 

Skye changed out of her pajamas before making a thoughtful noise, “Huh… Do you think this counts against us from the pilgrimage?”

“What do you mean?” Niko turned his attention to her, frowning, “Like, the receiving unearned favors, bit?” 

“Yeah. I know that Sasha owes us, but I don’t know for sure how much that counts as far as the pilgrimage is concerned.” With a sour expression, Skye contemplated what might be considered too much by the pilgrimage’s esoteric rules.

Niko joined her in contemplation, and found that he genuinely wasn’t certain either. On the one hand, they were owed compensation and favor for the tasks completed. Yet, on the other, the pilgrimage would grow more difficult the more assistance was rendered, and would dramatically increase if the party were to seek unearned favors.

“We’ll have to ask Crowe and Camille when they get back, but it does give me a good idea as to what we can ask for while we’re here.” Niko chirped thoughtfully.

“What’s that?” Skye asked, just about finished with getting ready.

“For permission to use the hunting grounds,  and about jobs that need to be done for whatever form of currency they use here. Stuff that shouldn’t count as direct aid, but can still help us in a roundabout way? Introducing us to people we might need to know, too, would probably be fine.” Niko finished, laying out his loose ideas.

Skye nodded at that, “Sounds good. That all seems pretty mild, so I’d hope that it’d be fine.”

They went to the bathrooms, freshened themselves up somewhat, before once more going down the halls towards the dining area. Partway through, they were notified by a servant that they were going to be having breakfast in a completely different dining room.

“More than one dining room.” Skye uttered as she shook her head, beside Niko, “Rich people.”

Niko snorted, “Well, at least it’s not like the Baron. His tastes were awful.”

“Mmm. That’s true.” She cringed to remember the Baron’s establishment, “That place was an eyesore.”

When they entered the ‘morning’ dining room, Niko couldn’t help but pause in appreciation of the area. One entire curved wall almost appeared to be open to the outside, were it not for the subtle glint of clear glass amidst the speckled sunbeams that struck it. It faced a garden of flowers and intricately grown plants, surrounding what appeared to be an outside picnic area, albeit much smaller. They weren’t going outside, though, and instead were treated to the serene sight that served as the main attraction of the room. The majority of the dining tables were set partly facing each other in a half circle, but everyone also had a clear and unobstructed view of the garden. 

“That’s pretty fancy,” Niko trilled approvingly, “And it looks like we’re the first ones here.”

The two took the initiative to claim the seats closest to the windows, making small talk about the garden and appreciating the gentle and relaxing atmosphere the room had. A handful of minutes later, the others began to trickle in, with Ronald and Stella coming in together. Niko wasn’t certain exactly where the two stood with one another, but it was clear they were interested. That was absolutely none of Niko’s business, though, and he simply greeted them. He suppressed an immature impulse to ask them how the night went, deciding that was beneath him.

“Good morning,” Ronald greeted in return, with Stella waving back, seemingly not quite awake yet. 

“I’m so ready to eat.” Stella flopped down in the seat next to Skye, and Ronald in the one beside her, “Do you guys know what the plan is for today?”

It was then that Mithel and Dachna joined them, arms locked together as they greeted everyone. Niko and Mithel shared an acknowledgement of the other, but beyond that drew no more attention to themselves. In all actuality, Niko didn’t expect that the knowledge of their past lives would necessarily change all that much about how they spoke to and interacted with each other. 

“Niko says we should ask for permission to use their hunting grounds, about jobs for money - or whatever they have here - and also to be introduced to people we might need to know.” Skye answered, “That way we can try to stay on the safe side of the pilgrimage's difficulty curve.”

Ronald nodded, “Sounds good, that’s what I was thinking. If Crowe and Camille show up soon, we can ask them, too.”

Sasha and Thokk joined them, followed soon after by the Matriarch, Anya, who walked alongside two other familiar faces.

“Crowe, Camille!” Ronald called out while smiling, “Good to see you.”

“Hey, guys!” Camille lifted an arm and waved in greeting while grinning, “Haven’t gotten into too much trouble while we’ve been away, have you?”

Niko cawed at her, “Not yet, but we’re working on it.” 

Camille snorted in amusement, “Well, don’t try too hard. Especially you, troublemaker.”

“Me? Never,” Niko sarcastically cawed back, “I leave that to Dachna.” 

Dachna blinked in a confused double-take, “Say what? What’d I do, Drumstick?”

Mithel chuckled, putting a consoling hand on his back, “Nothing on purpose.”

At that, the dirty-blonde haired man opened his mouth to lodge a complaint, only for Skye to bulldoze over, “What took you guys so long, anyways?”

Anya amusedly moved over to the center-most table, leaving spots open beside her, both for her daughter as well as Crowe and Camille, “Just an opening round of negotiations with me. It is better that the sponsor - myself - knows what the contents of a proposal are before they’re brought before the council.”

“Which we appreciate greatly, Matriarch,” Crowe inclined his head.

“Think nothing of it, and, please, Anya is fine.” The white-furred sabrecat said, “Breakfast shall be served soon, but if you’ve any special requests for dinner, feel free to let Astold know. Otherwise, he’ll just make whatever he feels like.”

“That worked out last time,” Dachna shrugged, “I’m pretty sure I’d eat anything he put in front of me.”

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Niko felt a strange little quirk of essence roil distantly, but wasn’t sure if he was imagining it.

Anya smiled, “I’m sure Astold would appreciate the compliment.” 

They talked a little bit about what their plan for the day was, and then breakfast came out on several platters as before. However, Niko wasn’t the only one who noticed that Dachna appeared to have an extra large helping of the first round, to which the man beamed and called out, “Thanks! Looks delicious!”

Niko chuckled at that, and joined in with the others eating. Quite voraciously, in his case, because once more the meal tasted incredible. At this point, Niko wasn’t sure if what he was tasting was food or essence, since so far everything that had essence in it was just better. More depth of flavor, higher quality, there was simply no metric that made it lose out to regular food.

After they finished their first round - with more on the way, because of course they were getting seconds - the Wyldwalkers were much more awake as a whole. 

“Anya, do you know any good hunting grounds around here? We’re looking to train and, if there’s any specific hunting that needs doing, we’d be happy to pick up some jobs.” Niko asked, feeling much more comfortable with speaking to the Matriarch after her repeated insistence to speak informally with her. 

She contemplated for a few seconds, “Yes, I do believe there are a few I could suggest. There are some that are challenging, but should be within your ability, if Sasha’s stories are anything to go by.” 

Niko raised an eyebrow at that, and seeing as Sasha was seemingly as pleased as could be, guessed that she’d given them a rather considerable positive review. 

‘I’m interested to see what she has in mind…’ Niko thought while turning his gaze back to Anya.

“There are always hunts to be had, but I can introduce you to the Huntsmaster in Riizen. For the most part, anything you hunt will be useful, but there are specific things that need to have their populations trimmed from time to time.” She then added, much more seriously, “For now, though, I would recommend staying away from the western portions of the titanwoods.” 

For an amusing moment, Niko and Mithel met each other's gaze at the mention of what clearly was a flag. “Why is that?” Ronald asked curiously.

“Because I would prefer to avoid a diplomatic incident at the onset of our two cities’ mutual cooperation so early,” Anya stated blithely, “There is something out there that is… troubling. We are working on hunting it down, of course, but I must also ask you not to speak of this to others as it is something of a sensitive matter.”

“That sounds ominous.” Mithel commented with a frown.

“It should be resolved soon,” Anya continued calmly, “Pending any more troublesome developments.”

Quietly, each of the Wyldwalkers felt that she’s just jinxed herself, and given the tight expressions on both Crowe and Camille, they must have thought so too.

Before anything else could be introduced to the pilgrimage, Crowe said, “In any case, we will be taking care of negotiations, so the rest of you should just focus on strengthening yourselves.”

“‘We’ he says,” Camille huffed quietly, “I’m the one opening the talks.”

If it wasn’t just Niko’s imagination, Crowe looked quite pleased at that.

 

-------------------------------

 

For the next few morning hours, the Wyldwalkers traveled under a much lighter escort, with Roan and Sasha, along with a handful of other sabrecats, flanking them as they traveled to various shops in the area. Niko hadn’t managed to catch the names of everyone, but luckily Ronald was adept at learning them, at least, but was having difficulty in being able to keep up with the conversations of most of the other beasts. 

Niko realized as they went that every beast-species had a subtly different ‘wavelength’ of sorts for essence. That explained why not all beasts could understand each other, and especially how it was troublesome for humanoids to interact with them on a regular basis. Ronald, out of them all, was the most naturally gifted in essence control, and that appeared to lend directly to his subconscious ability to comprehend new beast-tongues. That said, it didn’t give him instantaneous results, and between Niko and Skye, they did their best to work through the conversations that went around them. 

What Niko hadn’t anticipated was the fact that there were beasts who couldn’t understand humanoids well. Apparently some would need more time and adjustments to be able to understand them, but it would happen naturally the more they heard the spoken word. 

Linguistic difficulties aside, they’d managed quite well, and Stella eventually got in touch with a smith who, with some convincing from Sasha, agreed to let her sit in on the process of his day-to-day work.

“Don’t worry about me, you guys go have fun.” Stella said. The elven woman was already completely engrossed in her observation of their craft that, though it served the same function, was performed so much differently than what she was used to. 

Skye shook her head helplessly at that, but Niko himself was amused. They left her to it, collecting suggested equipment and gear on the loose understanding that it was part of the favor owed from Sasha. The sabrecat in question found it both intriguing and troublesome that the pilgrimage might be more of an obstacle than expected, but they were fairly certain that they’d earned what they were being given so far, and wouldn’t experience an undue difficulty increase.

When they finally roamed out of the city, Roan and his guards peeled off from their escort duty. They were mostly just for show in the city in the first place, now that it was getting around that they were guests of the Blue-Claw Clan, honored ones, at that. 

Sasha, however, stayed with them, though Thokk was nowhere to be seen.

“You want to come hunting with us?” Ronald asked, “You don’t have any other duties elsewhere?” 

“No, thankfully,” Sasha practically purred at that, “While you all are here, I can excuse myself from the council meetings as your personal ambassador.” 

“Sounds like a good deal,” Skye said, then added dryly, “I’m sure those meetings are riveting.” 

Sasha sighed, “You have no idea. They’re usually just boring issues, but they do need to be addressed. Sometimes, I think Mother spends more time in those sessions than she does in training.” 

“The downside of leadership, I guess.” Dachna shrugged, “Where’s the big guy, though?”
With an even brighter smile, Sasha answered, “He’s got to sit in on those meetings because his Patriarch wants him to get some experience. Thokk’s dodged so many of them, that I was beginning to wonder if they weren’t going to have him ever participate.” 

“Why are they forcing it now?” Niko blinked in confusion.

“Ah, it’s partly a punishment and partly acknowledgement,” Suddenly, Sasha looked a little chastened, “Because we went out of Riizen to seek aid in spite of the danger and without being ordered, it’s a punishment. But, because we succeeded and might have even formed connections with the lowlands, the punishment has been reduced to only this, so it can be seen as him being acknowledged, too.”

The Wyldwalkers all nodded at that, but Mithel asked, “So, I know you guys said you’d been fighting the hornets, but I couldn’t help but notice that there didn’t seem to be any… you know, battlefield.”

“Oh, that, yes. That happened at the foot of the mountain. They weren’t swarming us with their full forces like with what happened with Greenleaf, but there were still a lot of them. If we go back to the first plateau at some point, I can show you around to see if there are any defensive emplacements still damaged, but Riizen is much more defensible than you might think.” Sasha proudly declared. That pride dipped slightly as she added, “Unfortunately, we don’t exactly have a single unified military, or anything like that, so it takes time for us to mobilize to go on the offense.”

Niko nodded, unsure how he felt about that detail. To him, it seemed like if a group had plenty of powerful members, it would be in their best interest to get rid of a threat like the Massacre Hornets early. Taking the extra time to deliberate seemed… reckless, needlessly so.

“So, where are these hunting grounds you wanted to lead us to?” Ronald changed the subject, “And what can we expect to see there?”

The sabrecat gestured with her snout down a long vine as thick around as a skyscraper that led down and away from the city. “It’s not too far, and I’ll give you the necessary information as we go. It shouldn’t take more than an hour or so to reach it if we make good time.”  

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